In certain emergency situations, such as tubal rupture or rupture of the spleen or kidney, and in the course of surgery on the heart and on the major blood vessels, severe bleeding may occur in the abdominal cavity or in the thoracic cavity. The amount of blood flowing out during such bleeding can be several liters. Various known devices collect this blood and reintroduce (re-infuse) it into the circulatory sustem of the patient. Though blood banks are nowadays in most cases in a position to make available the number of suitable conserved blood units required for such an emergency, there are important arguments in favor of re-infusion, namely, reliable compatibility in respect of blood group and blood factors, no danger of transmission of hepatitis, immediate availability of a substantial amount of blood and, not least of all, the fact that the cost of conserved blood has risen. The oldest method is to scoop the blood out of the abdominal cavity with a large spoon, filter it through several layers of gauze and infuse it into the patient through a funnel. More recently, an apparatus has been described which sucks the blood through a suction tube into a collecting vessel from which it can be re-infused into the patient. The suction tube used for this purpose is open at the free end and cannot prevent blood clots because intestinal wall or omentum may be occasionally sucked against it, thereby interrupting the stream of blood into the collecting vessel. The rather long pipeline from the suction tube to the collecting vessel, and a part of the vessel, must be filled with a physiological salt solution before beginning to suck out the blood. The entire process is involved and requires a specially trained person to use this apparatus.